The new Doc Ricketts: dinner with the show

Published 3:35 pm, Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Historic comedy club the Purple Onion, shown above in the 1960s will be replaced by Doc Ricketts, a 40-seat, street-level restaurant with a performance space downstairs called Doc's Lab.

Historic comedy club the Purple Onion, shown above in the 1960s will be replaced by Doc Ricketts, a 40-seat, street-level restaurant with a performance space downstairs called Doc's Lab.

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Historic comedy club the Purple Onion, shown above shortly before its closure in 2012, will be replaced by Doc Ricketts, a 40-seat, street-level restaurant with a performance space downstairs called Doc's Lab.

Historic comedy club the Purple Onion, shown above shortly before its closure in 2012, will be replaced by Doc Ricketts, a 40-seat, street-level restaurant with a performance space downstairs called Doc's Lab.

Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

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People enjoy dinner at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, Calif., on Sunday, August 19th, 2012.

People enjoy dinner at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, Calif., on Sunday, August 19th, 2012.

Photo: John Storey, Special To The Chronicle

The new Doc Ricketts: dinner with the show

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Pop quiz: Name a music or comedy venue in San Francisco with really, really good food.

Still thinking? You're not alone. Despite the city's rich traditions of both live entertainment and stellar cuisine, rarely do the two seem to intersect these days, especially with the restaurants at Yoshi's (1330 Fillmore St.) and SFJazz (201 Franklin St.) experiencing transition periods this summer.

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"Having the best food at a show in the city - that's my ultimate goal," Deering says.

The two-level project has big shoes to fill, taking the place of the Purple Onion, the historic comedy club that closed in 2012 after almost 60 years of business, but not before hosting the likes of Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, the Smothers Brothers and Richard Pryor, among others.

"We want to do something to honor the Purple Onion space. So many people got their start here, and we wanted to keep the venue aspect open - but also have a venue where you could eat well," Deering says.

Doc Ricketts - named after the marine biologist friend of John Steinbeck immortalized in "Cannery Row" - will be a 40-seat restaurant helmed by Deering, who has been cooking for decades in San Francisco, including the likes of 15 Romolo, Cafe Des Amis and Conduit. Despite the name's context, it won't be a dedicated seafood restaurant, though there will be plenty of fish - and oysters - on the menu.

There will also be charcuterie, a burger, roast chicken and bar-friendly snacks especially amenable to the downstairs venue.

Speaking of which, Doc's Lab already has performances booked for the first two months, ranging from comedy shows to Bunny Pistol; Mondays are comedy open mike night.

The room has a capacity of 65 people seated (or 99 standing), and the quirky basement space is positioned so that it's literally under Columbus Avenue. In fact, the new regime has even opened up the glass "portholes" in the sidewalk above, which act as skylights.

Doc Ricketts is scheduled to open for dinner on Wednesday, with the venue opening the next week.

Showtime, cont.: Doc Ricketts isn't the only place looking to upgrade the Bay Area's food/entertainment genre.

Arbusto, a fine dining vet who spent several years under Alain Ducasse in France, will overhaul the menu and spread his wings with a restaurant-within-a-restaurant: Magnolia Sun, a tasting menu experience that will pop up periodically in one of the venue's dining areas.

Golden opportunity: The old Stars (555 Golden Gate Ave.) has been somewhat of a cursed space since Jeremiah Tower left town more than a decade ago, but lo and behold, it will be resurrected once again this fall.

This time, however, it's assured to be a temporary offering.

Local bar pros Jordan Langerand Pete Glikshtern have signed a three-year lease to take over the famous address. It's a short-term deal because the building is scheduled for demolition.

The new crew plans to open the Empire Room, a bar serving food from several food truck operators who, like hermit crabs, will inhabit the kitchen.

Road to recovery: Nearly all downtown Napa restaurants are back up and running after brief shutdowns in the wake of Sunday's big quake. Others, including La Toque in the Westin Verasa, are hoping to return by the end of the week.

Yet, still others won't be as lucky. The buildings housing Bounty Hunter (975 First St.) and Sushi Mambo (1202 First St.) are among approximately 80 properties that were red-tagged as structurally unsafe by city inspectors; both are closed until further notice.

Another one that remains closed is Carpe Diem(1001 Second St.), whose collapsed brick facade became one of the more dramatic and widely circulated photos from earthquake coverage. But even Carpe Diem hopes to reopen. A note on its website reads: "We hope to get in and clean up as soon as we can."

What still remains to be seen is the economic fallout from the restaurants' loss of wine inventory. Word on the vino-soaked streets is that some restaurants might have lost as much as $100,000 worth of bottles.

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